I know all of you use the USGS site alot to view water flows before you hit your favorite river so brace yourself it looks like the site won't be back up for awhile.

Here is the story:

Attention all Washington State Emergency Management Managers and Emergency Management Agencies.
This message is being forwarded for your information.
Please direct any questions/concerns you might have to the National Weather Service at the contact e-mail address shown below.
-----------------------------------
Please read the following message from the National Weather Service regarding the USGS current situation.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Buehner [mailto:Ted.Buehner@noaa.gov]
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2001 9:06 AM
To: dutyofficer@emd.wa.gov; dutyofficers@emd.wa.gov
Cc: chris.hill@noaa.gov; doug.mcdonnal@noaa.gov; brad.colman@noaa.gov
Subject: Fwd: [Fwd: [Fwd: USGS Servers Down - UFN]]


Duty Officers -

Please forward this message to all emergency managers statewide today.

The following message arrived after I finished working a night shift last night and I arrived home this morning. All emergency managers needs this information before the end of the day.

----------------

By court order, the USGS shut down all their web servers late Thursday.

Impact:

You will no longer be able to monitor rivers and other hydro data via the Internet until further notice. This situation could be critical during flood events that are imminent or occurring.

It is unfortunate that the court decision arrived during our flood season. It is unclear on when the USGS web sites will be back in operation.

At this point, we recommend returning to your pre-Internet river monitoring procedures.

As of this morning, the NWS was still receiving routine USGS hydro data via internal agency communications. I assume but cannot confirm
at this hour, that other government hydro agencies, such as the Corp of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation, are also still receiving routine USGS hydro data via internal communications.

The problem is not just with the USGS. Nearly all Dept of Interior web sites, including the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian
Affairs and the Dept of Interior's own web site, have all been shutdown. The only site I found still open was the National Park Service.

Why:

From a memo distributed to all USGS employees nationwide....

"At the direction of the Office of the Secretary of Interior, the USGS has been order to immediately disconnect all of its external network connections due to security concerns of the Court in the Cobell v Norton case. As a result, all USGS users will not be able to:

- Send or receive Internet email
- Send or receive email outside of the USGS
- Access the Internet

In addition, all USGS customers will not be able to:

- Access USGS web pages
- Send email or receive email from USGS

These measures were ordered by the Court after the Special Master for the Cobell litigation hired a contractor to conduct penetration testing of Indian Trust Management systems resulting in a compromise of those systems. As a result, all Bureaus must take these measures.

It is unknown at this time how long these measures will be in place. The Department is working with the Court to discuss the security of our systems and the restoration of the affected connections. In the interim, users may wish to contact their frequent business contacts and make arrangements to conduct business by telephone and fax."

Like you, we hope this court decision will be resolved shortly. However, given recent articles found on the web regarding this case, it does not look like the court is going to favor any appeals by the Dept of Interior.

Ref: www.indiantrust.com
www.ewebtribe.com
Let's cross our fingers and hope the court understands the impact this decision has on the NWS and emergency management community ability to protect lives and property.

Perhaps, a way could be found to post USGS river gauge info on NWS or other hydro web sites, such as the Corp or Bureau of Rec. That idea
has already be expressed. However, that concept could take some time to develop, if implemented.

In the meantime:

I recommend informing your area emergency management and hydro community staff and related agencies, such as the Red Cross, of the
USGS web site situation, so they can adjust their river monitoring procedures, likely back to the pre-Internet days.

This situation will likely evolve. Many questions have yet to be asked and may take time to answer. However, we can continue to work together to fulfill our mission to protect lives and property.

Working mids and sleeping days - Ted Buehner, WCM, NWS Seattle
-----
Subject USGS Servers Down - UFN


I have been notified that all USGS servers have been shut off until further notice due to security concerns of the Court in a pending court case.

The USGS will not be able to:

- send or receive Internet email
- send or receive email outside of USGS
- access the Internet

In addition, all USGS customers will not be able to:

- access USGS customers
- send/receive email to/from USGS

We have made the initial assessment of the impact of this action on NWS operations:

1) USGS online rating curves are not available

2) USGS historical data is not available

3) USGS river stage/flow information is not available

Items 1 and 2 are not operationally critical to NWS operations. Item 3 is also not critical as NWS field offices depend on telemetered streamgage data via HADS, DOMSAT, etc.

It is critical for all regions to confirm this assessment in an email or phone call back to me no later than 10am this morning.

Thanks.

Glenn



Looks like were back to placing sticks in the water for a gage.

Well, that's nice.

The USACE flows are still online, link below.

http://www.nwd-wc.usace.army.mil/nws/hh/hh-text/basins/rivers.htm

I saw this article posted over at (Warning! High geek content link to follow) Slashdot yesterday and found it most interesting.

In a nutshell, here it is: the Department of the Interior keeps a database of Indian trust monies. Through gaping holes in security on both their Internet servers and internal servers (Administrator accounts with no passwords or simple passwords such as "passwd" easily discovered with basic cracking tools) officials of the court were able to Add bogus entries, delete legitimate entries, transfer funds from legitimate to bogus entries, etc. without the government detecting the breach of security.

The DOI has been notified of these security flaws previously but never took them seriously. The attorney who represented the DOI at one point said that he didn't understand such basic terms as "individual trust data" and "computer". This royally pissed off the judge and the result was the ruling to immediately shut down all computers with connections to the Internet, including the Internet servers. Unfortunately the DOI has the USGS, BLM, and Park Service websites in their jurisdiction.

Regardless of what you think about the whole Indian trust money issue, this security problem was HUGE and the DOI did nothing to resolve it. The server platforms that they were using are very secure when administered properly. Obviously they were not, and steps had to be taken to remedy this.

Sucks not to have that Parks, USGS, BLM, etc info available but it was necessary to fix the hole.

Thanks Dan!!! And for you Cowlitz fans out there here is the phone number for the TPU fishing hotline that will give you the flows for the Cow, Nisqually, Green, and Nooch. 1-888-502-8690. Latest from the Cow is 12,700CFS, to be lowered in the next several days. Should be some good fishin' when they drop it!!!
Godd luck and tight lines, Jeff

Too funny
... our native american brothers have found a new way to scr#w us!

Dan S. I went to the one you posted but found that it was only through the 5th and a bit of the 6th. Do you think it's off line too? fp

fp,

I didn't even think to look. If it's only updated to the 5th and 6th, they may be affected by this too. I'm pretty sure they use a feed from the USGS. Aw, crap, I won't be happy if I have to actually DRIVE to the rivers to see what's in shape.

Here`s another twist of the story

Hasty Pudding?

The Washington Times
Inside the Beltway Column
March 14, 2001

Harvard's new president, Larry Summers, has more in common with another famous Harvard alum and Washington figure, Robert Rubin, than the university directors may realize. Besides their Harvard degrees and their tenures as secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton, both Mr. Rubin and Mr. Summers managed to get tangled up in Cobell vs. Norton, a lawsuit that accuses Treasury of mismanaging $90 billion in
individual Indian trust accounts. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth found Mr. Rubin and his Cabinet colleague, then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, in contempt of court on Feb. 22, 1999, after they repeatedly violated a court order to stop destroying Indian trust documents. Mr. Summers was deputy Treasury secretary at the time.
It turned out that during the contempt trial, Treasury workers in suburban Maryland destroyed another 160 boxes of trust records, a fact that six Treasury officials hid from Judge Lamberth for four months. A court appointed special master who investigated that lapse later called the Treasury's Indian trust system clearly out of control. On Nov. 2, Mr. Summers, who by then had succeeded Mr. Rubin as secretary, filed with Judge Lamberth, under
seal, the results of Treasury's internal investigation of the six officials'
document-destruction cover-up. The Indian plaintiffs and Dow Jones & Co. Inc.,
publisher of the Wall Street Journal, immediately asked that the report be made public. A decision is pending. The Indian plaintiffs also asked Judge Lamberth to impose sanctions, possibly including contempt, against Mr. Summers for filing a frivolous motion to seal the report. That matter is also pending. Judge Lamberth socked Mr. Rubin and Mr. Babbitt with more than $600,000 in
penalties, but emphasized that next time, the Treasury secretary — not the taxpayers — would pay the price, possibly including jail time.
If that happens, Mr. Summers will be off to a fast start as a Harvard president of distinction.

Paul:

This has nothing to do with the Indians and everything to do with the governments total disregard for proper security of sensitive data. Certainly you'd be up in arms as well if you discovered that, say, the Department of Vetrans Affairs had not put a password on the databases that contained all the names, SSN's, total benefits paid, etc, allowing people the ability to create fake entries to allow them to receive monies not meant for them!

Again, this has nothing to do with the ethnic origin of the victims and everything to do with gross security mismanagement. Don't construe it otherwise.

Thanks isn't good i noticed it the other day and thought that it was just temperarilly. It was one of the good resourses that we had to help us anglers that have to drive a pretty good distance to go fishing. I guess we have to guess now if the river will be at the right hight.

Try going to www.wrh.noaa.gov, I just checked this site and it appears to be up and running, much like the local rivers.

Tony

GOOD NEWS!!!

http://www.indiantrust.com/rulings/2001.12.08_PartialRelief.pdf

Click on link above for Judge Lamberth's order dated 12/8 which authorizes certain agencies to reconnect to the internet (the USGS is named). I still can't get into the page, but hopefully it will be up soon!

If your looking for river information you can still place a phone call to the, "NOAA River Hot Line" at 206 526-8530. This is a phone recorded message that is put out by the Fed's. It is also updated on a regular basis.